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‘Payback’ for UFV women’s soccer

Squad posts big win, men split weekend
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UFV's Monika Levarsky battles for the ball with a pair of UVic defenders during Canada West regular season action on Saturday.

Payback turned out to be sweet for the UFV Cascades women's soccer team on Saturday.

Last November, 120 minutes of scoreless soccer and a save in the shootout by the UVic Vikes keeper bounced UFV from the Canada West playoffs.

Goal scoring wasn't an issue for the Cascades on Saturday, as they played aggressive offence and picked up the 3-0 win.

Gurneet Dhailwal scored a pair of goals in the first half, and Simi Lehal tallied in the second half to earn the win.

The win comes off a 2-2 draw to the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday, a game that saw the Cascades let a 2-0 lead slip away.

UFV head coach Rob Giesbrecht said it was a nice win after letting UBC off the hook on Friday.

"After surrendering a two-goal lead yesterday, we knew we couldn't take our foot off the gas pedal today until the final whistle blew," he said. "I don't think tonight was our cleanest performance in terms of our passing but we got the job done. There's definitely room for growth in the way we play, but we got the three points."

Giesbrecht said attacking is what the team needs to keep doing to be successful.

"Once we chose to attack and chose to play a bit more assertively we controlled the game," he said.

"We're not a team that sits on a lead; we proved last night [Friday] we don't do that well. The best way for us to defend is to keep attacking, and it pins teams back if we play correctly."

He said Dhaliwal and forward Monika Levarsky, who had three assists, both had strong games. He also said the return of Bateman grad Kara Delwo has been a nice addition.

"This is a Canada West all-star who missed all last year with an injury," he said, of the midfielder. "She's an incredible warrior for us."

The women now are in third place in the Pacific division, with a record of two wins, one loss and two ties.

For the men, their streak of shutting down the opposition offensively came to a thud on Saturday against the Mount Royal University Cougars.

MRU exploded for four goals to earn the 4-0 win.

Prior to Saturday's game, UFV had only allowed one goal all season long. Four of the team's previous five games had resulted in clean sheets.

The Cascades trailed 2-0 at the half, and UFV's Daniel Davidson was sent off early in the second half after picking up two yellow cards in a two-minute span, putting a cramp in the Cascades' comeback hopes.

"We came out a bit slow, and they came out fired up – they came out like a team that wanted three points," Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes said.

"I think we were second-best in our tackles, and we weren't playing as quick as we needed to."

Friday saw the men's team blank the MacEwan University Griffins 1-0.

Davidson scored the game's lone goal.

The men hit the road next weekend to take on the Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday and the Saskatchewan Huskies on Sunday, while the women travel for away games against UBC Okanagan Heat on Saturday and the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Sunday.



Ben Lypka

About the Author: Ben Lypka

I joined the Abbotsford News in 2015.
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